1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a failure diagnosis device and a failure diagnosis method for a failure of an image forming device such as a copy machine, a printer, and a facsimile, particularly, a failure of a fixing section, an image forming device in which the failure is diagnosed by the failure diagnosis device or the failure diagnosis method, and a computer program product comprising a computer-usable medium having computer-readable program codes embodied in the medium for executing the failure diagnosis method.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming device such as a copy machine, a printer, and a facsimile includes a number of units or components. When abnormality occurs in the image forming device due to a failure or the end of life of the unit, etc., it is necessary to perform repair or maintenance such as replacement. Some or all functions of the image forming device need to be stopped while the repair is performed. In performing the repair, it may take a long time to find out a cause of abnormality, and thus there is a problem in that a user is inconvenienced because it is impossible to use the image forming device during that time in addition to a net time of repair or the like. This problem also occurs when the maintenance on a portion in which abnormality is likely to occur is performed before abnormality occurs. In order to solve the problem, it is required to diagnose where abnormality of the image forming device occurs or is likely to occur to perform the maintenance, etc., thereby reducing downtime.
In this regard, a technique for estimating a failure portion (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 06-208265), a technique for extracting a candidate of a failure portion or a portion that is likely to cause a failure (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-309077), and a technique for determining whether or not a device is in an abnormal state or anticipating an occurrence of a failure in a device (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-102474) have been suggested.
Meanwhile, as one of constitutions disposed in the image forming device, a fixing section has a larger number of components in general and is relatively higher in cost than other constitutions. Since the fixing section has a larger number of components, various causes may be considered as a cause of its trouble or its failure. Therefore, the same problem as the problem described above, for example, a problem in that a time taken for maintenance tends to become longer and unnecessary maintenance may be performed for a portion different from a cause is exactly applied to the fixing section. Consequently, similarly, in order to solve the problem in the fixing section, it is important to diagnose where abnormality of the fixing section occurs or is likely to occur to perform the maintenance, thereby reducing downtime.
In this regard, the applicant previously suggested a failure diagnosis device that performs failure diagnosis of a fixing section disposed in an image forming device including estimation of a cause of trouble related to a paper transport time in the fixing section in Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-163382.
However, since trouble in the fixing section is not caused only in connection with the paper transport time, it is required to additionally suggest a technique for being capable of dealing with other causes of trouble.